Tomorrow, I’ll be here….

That’s the GM Holden proving grounds at Lang Lang, in Victoria’s south east. It’s not quite Milford in Michigan or that regal-looking IDIADA track in Spain (I know….I probably got the name wrong again), but it’ll be fun nonetheless.

The two focal points for the day are the Turbo X and the TTiD. I think I’ll be spending most of my time with the TTiD. Firstly, there’s only going to be one Turbo X there, so time-per-person will be minimal. Second, you’ve already seen a fair bit of the Turbo X, and conversely, many have seen nothing of the Aero TTiD.

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And whilst we’re playing with maps, this is a Swedish version of a Google Maps type thing, which has great resolution.

If you’ve been to Trollhattan, then go there again in Hi-res by clicking here (that’ll land you at ANA).

Here’s the beautiful Scandic Swania hotel, where I spent many an hour between midnight and 3am writing posts for your reading pleasure in June last year. Meeeeeemoriiiieeeeeees

Thanks Robin!

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The event that I’m going to tomorrow was conducted earlier this week for the motoring press here in Australia.

Carpoint have published two articles today as a result:

New Saabs focus on responsible performance, and

AWD for more Saabs downunder

To be honest, the standard of writing there means that they don’t make for the easiest reading, but it’s still good press over all.

Thanks Turbin

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Finally, in the midst of a lot of bad news for GM in the states (lowest share price since, like, forever) it bears rememebring that things are bad all over right now. This from Automotive News:

It is getting more difficult to be optimistic about European automakers’ profitability.

The European market is stagnant in volume terms. The model mix is shifting toward smaller, lower-margin cars as well as to less-profitable fleet sales.

Exporters to the U.S. are getting hit twice: the softening of the market means fewer sales and the unsustainable dollar-euro rate makes many of those sales unattractive.

And finally, the price of some key raw materials such as steel has already gone up more this year than in all of 2007.

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It’s going to be an interesting weekend…….I hope you have a great one.